South Korea's government said Sunday it will move to increase the supply of farm and fishery produces ahead of the Chuseok holiday amid a sharp rise in prices.

The move comes as unseasonably hot weather during the summer months and the recent typhoon have triggered spikes in prices ahead of the autumn harvest celebration that usually fuels demand.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it will set up a special taskforce some three weeks before the start of the five-day holiday that falls on the last week of this month.

(Yonhap)

The taskforce will keep close tabs on supply and demand and changes in market prices so Seoul can respond quickly to sudden fluctuations.

Chuseok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving Day and is one of the country's biggest traditional holidays, along with Lunar New Year's Day. This year's Chuseok falls on Sept. 24.

"Daily supplies of apples, radishes, pears, beef, pork, chicken, eggs and three other produces that are consumed in abundance during the Chuseok holiday will be increased from 5,369 tons to 7,252 tons to check a rise in prices," a ministry official said.

Prices of various fruits have risen in the 40-90 percent range, with numbers for pork and beef rising around 10 percent.

He said in total some 120,000 tons of produce will be released into the market in the coming weeks, representing a gain of 51 percent from 80,000 tons

In addition, stores run by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and large hypermarkets are planning to carry out large scale discounts, both offline and online, that can help control prices.

Besides such measures, the ministry said various state income compensation payments will be given to farmers this month instead of in November, with speedy insurance payments being provided to people who were hurt by the recent typhoon. (Yonhap)